ngs xxii. and
xxiii. The strong indications are that this was the book known to us as
Deuteronomy, and that instead of the rediscovery of a forgotten book
there was in truth a new book set forth, claiming the authority of Moses,
and enlarging and enriching the traditional observances according to the
most "advanced" ideas of the time. A similar occasion, at a later
period, is described at length in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The
new legislation there imposed in the name of Moses and the fathers--or
rather of Yahveh himself, as he spoke to the men of old--was probably in
substance the regulations contained in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.

By our standards of judgment, these acts were pious forgeries. The
mental conditions under which they were done, the psychologic state which
prompted them, the ethical standards which sanctioned them, are matter
for curious study. It would be crude to class them as the deliberate and
inexcusable crimes which they would be in our day. The claim of a divine
authority for human beliefs--the idea that what is morally beneficial may
be asserted as historically true--has worked in many strange forms. We
see it here in its early phase, among a people in whom, as in mankind at
large, the virtue and obligation of truthfulness was a late and slow
discovery. The same instinct--to claim for what we wish to believe a
sanction of infallible revelation--works in subtle forms to-day.

As to the contents of the Law which thus gradually took form, a
distinction may easily be traced even by the cursory reader. The earlier
code, Deuteronomy, is full of a generous and lofty temper. It is one of
the most impressive documents of the Jewish scriptures. Here is that
which Jesus named as the first and great commandment: "Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy might." The teaching of the book is primarily the worship of
Yahveh,--a holy, loving, and judging God,--who rewards his people with
blessings or punishes them with disasters. Promises and threats are
equally distinct and vivid: never were blessing and cursing more
emphatic. The morality enjoined is charitable and pure. With an equal
insistence is enjoined a certain method and form of worship, including
sacrifices at the temple, three yearly feasts, the observance of the
Sabbath, the due maintenance of the priesthood, and the utter rejection
of all other gods.

When we turn to the